Comic Review: The List: Avengers
This is the first of an 8 part series likely signaling the end of the big Dark Reign crossover stuff, because no doubt Quesada already has another pointless crossover in the works.
The comic begins at Avengers Tower, with Norman Osborn talking to Ares about how there must be a to-do list, so he can make the world all better. He makes note of what was wrong with the old way, saying things such as, the superhero civil war (Civil War), the skrull invasion (Secret Invasion), Hulk attacking New York City (Planet Hulk), and Scarlet Witch wiping out a species (House of M, where she got rid of a lot of mutants afterwards.). So, basically, everything that Joe Quesada was a part of is what's wrong with the Marvel Universe. Maybe Brian Michael Bendis is trying to say something?
We then cut to a newscast about X-Island. Oh yeah, about that. See, there was that big Utopia fiasco, where there was a big mutant riot in San Francisco, Osborn came in, created his own team of X-Men, set martial law, and hired Dark Beast to find a way to drain mutant powers. He set up a giant mutant prison thing on an island out at see, so the actual X-Men went there to fight him. There was another big battle, the X-Men won, kinda, and took the island as a kind of sanctuary from anti-mutant people. Yeah, they have a mutant Israel now. Osborn's fine with that, and just calls it an inescapable prison for mutant terrorists. I think somebody didn't think that through too much.
So, anyway, the newscast talks about the last part, the mutant prison, and we then see Clive Barton, the Ronin formerly known as Hawkeye, declare his brilliant plan.
Everyone disagrees with this, especially since they had gone over this before, after Barton had gone on TV saying Osborn was a crazy loon. Everyone tells him this was a bad idea, and he agrees, saying a better idea would have been to assassinate Osborn. Spider-Man, of course, says this is not the heroic thing to do, but everyone else seems a bit more hesitant. Anyway, they find some action before they can really sort it out, so Ronin is still on about it.
Spider-Man holds that killing Osborn would simply be a bad thing to do, while everyone else isn't as steadfast. Ronin makes an analogy, positing that any of them would kill Hitler given the chance.
Aaanyway, he goes to each of the other Avengers, who say it's probably more important that they help their X-friends first. He gets angry and storms off, so his girlfriend/former wife/I don't know Mockingbird goes to talk to him. She agrees to help him on his murderous rampage, because that's what a good spouse does. That night, after "snuggle time," Barton leaves without her, but bring along enough weapons and ammo to bring down a small country.
He breaks into the building, taking out Venom first. This causes a distraction, as everybody thinks Venom tried to escape.
Wait, shouldn't only the higher ups know that Venom isn't actually Spider-Man? I thought the whole "secretly supervillains" thing was on a need-to-know basis. Anyway, Hawkeye comes out with a bow and arrow, which Ronin counters with a machine gun. Daken, also known as Dark Wolverine comes into the fray, who Ronin dispatches by an arrow through his head. He sees Moonstone, and asks if she wants to help him kill her boss, She declines, because there are cameras on her. She blasts Barton, but a security lockdown causes force fields which save him just in time.
Barton finally gets into Osborn's room, and shoots him.
Unfortunately, Osborn has a whole lotta Stark tech, like a personal shield, which can deflect bullets. Ares then arrives to beat the living shit out of Barton, and Norman delcares him under arrest.
This was a pretty good issue. I can expect that because Brian Michael Bendis was writing it. Funny how probably the only person not writing for Amazing Spider-Man is the best writer for him. I was wondering when Osborn would finally get down to business and take care of some shit. I'm interested in seeing where this is going, but disappointed because Bendis isn't writing the other 7 issues, so they could go either way. I'll still buy the next one, and that will determine if the rest are worth buying. Hopefully I'll be able to get more reviews in as more review-worthy comics are released. Until next time, this is The W Defender, signing off.